Conspiracy and Rat Poison

Zhang Tie did not know what happened in the classroom after he left. By the time Barry and the others began their show of hands, Zhang Tie had already walked out of the gates of the Seventh National Boys' Middle School.

Life is sometimes just that shitty. You're sitting under a tree, minding your own business, spacing out, when some motherfucker dumps a few dirty plates in front of you, forcing you to choose between being a spineless, unpaid dishwasher or getting beaten to a pulp.

Damn it! That One-Eyed Dragon's summary really hit the mark. To some people, if you refuse their insults, they take it as an insult to themselves. Since that's the case, I might as well indulge you and insult you to your heart's content. What are you going to do, bite my ass?

As he left the school, Zhang Tie coincidentally ran into One-Eyed Dragon, who had just stepped out as well. Seeing him, Zhang Tie couldn't exactly pretend he didn't see him, and it seemed they would be walking the same way for quite a distance.

"Captain Colin, are you heading to the combat hall?" Zhang Tie took the initiative to greet him. It was no secret that One-Eyed Dragon worked as a part-time instructor at the Iron Thorn Combat Hall.

Seeing Zhang Tie, Captain Colin, who knew of the boy's gutsy performance at the hall yesterday, felt his impression of him improve significantly. He thought the kid was real material—man enough to earn his appreciation. He felt his judgment was still sharp. "Yeah, I'm heading to the hall. I heard you're working another part-time job outside, at a grocery store, right?"

Captain Colin had no idea that Zhang Tie was that "gutsy guy," nor did he have any interest in knowing. To Captain Colin, everyone should be responsible for their own choices. Since "that gutsy guy" dared to screw over Gelis and his crew so badly, he had to have the courage to face the consequences alone. With so many students in the school, Captain Colin wasn't anyone's babysitter.

Knowing One-Eyed Dragon's temperament, Zhang Tie didn't even mention the incident from noon, instead engaging in a few lines of casual, perfunctory small talk.

"Yeah, this job was introduced by my family. I've been doing it for a long time!"

"How is it working at the grocery store?"

"The boss is great, and I can learn quite a lot..."

The two chatted casually as they walked further and further away...

Long after they had left, Gelis and his group emerged from behind the shadows of the trees near the school gate, their faces looking grim. They stared at the backs of Zhang Tie and Captain Colin, grinding their teeth in hatred.

"What do we do? I didn't expect this kid to be so close to One-Eyed Dragon. It looks like their relationship is out of the ordinary," Sha Long said, his face twisted. The incident at noon was just because Gelis had been annoyed that Zhang Tie had interrupted his chance to shine in Teacher Daina's class, and he had been holding a grudge. Plus, hearing that the kid had been making waves in class these past two days, he just wanted to suppress him. To Gelis, at this stage where his future was being decided, there could only be one star at the Seventh National Boys' Middle School, and that star had to be him; no one could steal his spotlight. Bullying a loser was nothing to them. None of them expected Zhang Tie to have the courage to refuse at noon, let alone stay silent. Caught off guard, they had all experienced the darkest day of their lives that afternoon.

Sha Long's words made everyone frown. The fresh, stinging whip marks on their backs felt like they were being rubbed with salt, constantly reminding them of the humiliation and defeat they had suffered.

"If we want to deal with this kid, Captain Colin will definitely step in. Today's incident might have been a trap the kid set for us, knowing he had Captain Colin's backing. Dealing with him in the future won't be as easy as handling others!" Jia Naier said with some resentment.

"As long as we're outside the school and Captain Colin can't catch us in the act, we have plenty of ways to deal with this kid. Heh... heh..." Zu Haier laughed sinisterly.

"What do you have in mind?" Sha Long asked.

Zu Haier looked around. Seeing his posture, the others knew whatever he was about to say was likely shocking and not meant for others to hear. They retreated behind the trees, four heads huddled together, as Zu Haier laid out his plan.

"If we do this, the outcome won't be something we can control!" Zu Haier looked at Gelis. Among them, he was the strategist, but Gelis was the one who made the final call.

"This... wouldn't it be a bit... a bit too much? I just wanted to find a chance to beat him up a few times. After all, we are... we are... classmates... this could cost someone their life!" Jia Naier stammered, clearly terrified by Zu Haier's vicious scheme.

"What, Jia Naier, are you backing out?" Sha Long glared at him. "Has the wound on your back healed already?"

"Jia Naier, you're still so naive. In this era, what is the word 'classmate' worth?" Zu Haier mocked.

"I... I... what I meant was..." Before Jia Naier could finish, his neck was grabbed tightly by Gelis. The massive gap between a sturdy Level 2 Battle Soldier like Gelis and an ordinary student was apparent; Gelis lifted Jia Naier off the ground with one hand. Jia Naier's face turned beet red, and he began to struggle in agony.

"Do you have anything else to say?" Gelis asked with a cruel grin. Feeling his breath hitch, Jia Naier desperately shook his head under Gelis's grip. Gelis let go, and Jia Naier collapsed to the ground, coughing violently.

"We'll do as you said. Let that kid be smug for two days. When the Survival Trial comes, I'm going to teach him a lesson he'll never forget..." A chilling, cruel expression appeared on Gelis's face, and the three standing men laughed, some genuinely, some forced.

If the result couldn't be controlled, so be it—at worst, someone would die. A black-haired kid, an irrelevant nobody—what was the big deal? In this era, did a day ever pass in Black Flame City without someone dying?

Zhang Tie usually liked to call the guys at school "animals" because he felt everyone at that age was like a rutting calf, but he never expected that hidden among these animals were some true beasts.

When Zhang Tie arrived at the grocery store, he saw Tang De bustling about, dealing with three customers at once. Seeing his unpaid assistant arrive, Tang De breathed a visible sigh of relief.

"Show these two customers our 'Powerful Rat Poison'..." Tang De said, using a code only Zhang Tie understood.

A few minutes later, the three customers left with their goods, and Tang De stood there, smiling as he counted the gold coins.

Zhang Tie didn't know why, but after news of the Red Scarf Bandits spread through Black Flame City, the number of magistrates and patrol soldiers near the train station had increased. Strangely, business at Tang De's grocery store had actually improved, with daily customers up by at least twenty percent. Some of the miscellaneous items—even some that weren't exactly legal—were selling like hotcakes. The best-seller was the "Powerful Rat Poison" Tang De had just mentioned. Before the Great Cataclysm, this code-named substance was said to be the raw material for one of the most terrifying weapons humanity had ever mastered. Back then, you couldn't even be in the same room as it, let alone ingest it, without risking your life. School teachers said it was called "Radioactive Material" before the Great Cataclysm. The Great Cataclysm and the mysterious particles of the Star of God had stripped these materials of their radioactive energy, altering their fundamental properties so they could no longer be used to build those horrific weapons. However, their lethal toxicity remained. People before the Great Cataclysm needed complex methods to refine it, but after the violent geological shifts of the Great Cataclysm, people discovered that some natural minerals emerging from underground contained high concentrations of it. This naturally toxic mineral, known as the "Devil Stone," didn't require complex processing; once ground into a fine powder, it was lethally poisonous. In the history of the Blakerson Human Corridor, this "rat poison" had been used by cults to cause mass-casualty incidents involving nearly ten thousand people. Consequently, Black Flame City officially classified it as a controlled substance. In reality, for the many adventurers, Prospectors, and combat professionals struggling to expand human territory in the wild, it was a sharp weapon for dealing with low-level Magic Beasts and monsters. Sometimes, putting a little in a simple food bait was enough to kill several Magic Beasts, and coating weapons with it after simple processing could greatly increase their lethality. Therefore, the trade of this substance could never be completely banned. Although the official ban existed, the authorities in Black Flame City turned a blind eye because they simply couldn't control it.

"Rat poison" was the gray code name people used to allow it to be sold openly. In a place as chaotic as the area around the Black Flame City train station, there was no shortage of such things. Tang De's store carried real rat poison, but also this stuff—which, under the guise of rat poison, was a potent toxin that could easily take down not just house rats, but even the terrifying giant mutant rats outside the city. It was colorless and odorless. Unless someone used special methods or had a strength level above 10 with keen senses and spiritual insight, ordinary people and average Magic Beasts couldn't detect it. That was the terrifying nature of this "Powerful Rat Poison."

Since the curfew began in Black Flame City due to the Red Scarf Bandits, sales of the "Powerful Rat Poison" at Tang De's store had been climbing steadily. What used to sell for 75 silver coins a bottle—only five or six bottles a month—was now priced at over a gold coin, with three or four bottles selling daily. Most of the people buying it were just ordinary folks. Thinking back to what happened at school today and the unknown retaliation to come, Zhang Tie felt a sense of panic rising within him...